Top issue: Government over immigration

The efficacy of the federal government is the most important problem facing the U.S., a new poll says.

According to a Gallup poll released Wednesday, a plurality of Americans — 18 percent — say dissatisfaction with the government is the top issue in the U.S., up 2 percentage points from last month. Immigration ranked second, with 15 percent of Americans saying it is the country’s most important problem, followed by the economy at 14 percent, and unemployment and jobs at 12 percent.

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Immigration remains a high priority for Americans as Congress and the White House struggle to deal with the undocumented children along the border. In July, it ranked as the top problem in the same survey.

The survey comes after lawmakers left Washington, D.C., for August recess without addressing several major problems, perhaps most notably legislation to address the buildup of Central American migrant children along the U.S.-Mexico border. Several recent other polls have reported that Americans’ faith in the federal government is at an all-time low, and found declining trust in both major political parties and Washington, and a growing pessimism about the future of the country.

The biggest riser in the past month has been foreign policy. Seven percent of Americans say international affairs is the most important problem for the U.S., up 4 points since July. In just the past month, the Obama administration has authorized airstrikes against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants in Iraq and twice increased sanctions against Russia, once after the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine.

Seventy-one percent of Americans report a non-economic issue for the top issue facing the country, a number far higher than reported in the aftermath of the 2008 recession.

The survey was conducted Aug. 7-10 with 1,032 adults on landlines and cellphones. The margin for error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.